Most people would agree that there is something wrong with the way things currently work in our society. One of the reasons for this seems to be that the institutions we rely on in our day to day lives do not seem to have our best interests at heart. Our politicians are not concerned enough about good governance, our teachers are not concerned enough about the excellence of our kids, our bankers are not concerned enough about our financial well being, our justice system is not concerned enough about ensuring just judgments, etc.
There seem to be two kinds of responses to our institutional problems. The first kind of response is to accept that the individuals running our institutions will be self-serving but try and implement measures to ensure that they will see to our interests.
This kind of response can take one of two forms: Either we write up a comprehensive set of rules and regulations to control the behavior of those running our institutions and ensure they look after our interests, or we offer incentives to ensure that they look after our interests. Neither of these work.
Rule and regulations don’t work because there will always be loop holes to be exploited by our indifferent institutions. Incentives don’t work because they fail to sufficiently engage our will.
The other kind of response, and to my mind the only viable one, is to introduce practical wisdom into our indifferent institutions. Practical wisdom is best understood as the will to do the right thing along with the skill to be able to recognize what the right thing is. If we were to have practically wise institutions then they would not only have the will to look after our interests but they would also have the skill to be able to effectively look after our interests. The solution to our indifferent institutions is to cultivate practical wisdom.
In the talk below Barry Shwartz argues in pleasing detail for exactly this point.
Barry Schwartz studies the link between economics and psychology, offering startling insights into modern life. Lately, working with Ken Sharpe, he’s studying wisdom. See full bio here